


brave girl

by thimble



Category: Gintama
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 13:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12013545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thimble/pseuds/thimble
Summary: You're a child, and you're happy, because you don't know any better.





	brave girl

you're a child, and you're happy, because you don't know any better.

adults have it all wrong. what they call slums you call home, and what they call broken you call a family. it's not a bad way to live if you're yato. most of the people like you are alone because the desire to fight isn't just a physical thing: it's ingrained in all of you to be at odds with others, and none moreso than those of your kind. so that's normal, but it's also sad. you're lucky because even if you're sick and poor, you're all still together.

not a lot of yato can say that.

 

* * *

 

you're a child, and the peaceful world you believed in doesn't just slowly crumble down. it explodes.

you love your brother but you've never understood him, and never less than now when he takes your father's life in his hands and attempts to snuff it out. families aren't plucked out of thin air, so why destroy the only one you have?

a question you also ask your father, bleeding in his severed arm yet consumed with bloodlust that nearly returns the favor to your brother, before you stop him in your childish way of saying, 'enough.'

no more fighting.

you didn't think it would mean no more father and brother, either.

 

* * *

 

you're a child, and you've lost too many things when girls your age should only be losing hair ties or toys.

you lose your mother not long after, her sickness made worse by the missing of your father and the absence of your brother. she's beautiful even when she was ill, and she remains beautiful in your memory.

but when that memory is the only thing you have left, you don't see much reason to stay.

earth sounds new. earth sounds good.

 

* * *

 

you're a child, and you're on pet twenty-six, but that won't stop you from trying to own one.

it's not your fault you forget your strength, not your fault they're fragile. you hold them the wrong way once and they just die on you, which is worse than video games because there aren't any do-overs. it's not your fault, though sometimes you can't help but feel like it is.

the right sadaharu will come along eventually, and he'll be your favorite one because he'll be the one who stays. he arrives much sooner than you thought, a large dog with an even larger appetite. there's so much of him to love.

you find it in you to smile, despite losses that extend farther than your late pets.

 

* * *

 

you're a child, and for the first time in a long time you're no longer alone in the world.

you live on the second floor with perpetually overdue rent, with a four-eyes who shouts more than he should and a man who eats too much sugar and not once ever gave you a salary. you suspect he never will, but he gave you a home when you thought you'd never find one again and he understands what it means to lose someone important.

you suppose he's not so bad.

(it helps to know that he'll never leave you, even when you try to leave him.)

 


End file.
